Getting Over The Hump

You’ve been engaged in martial arts for a bit, maybe even years, but you feel jammed.

It doesn’t matter what you do, your flexibility doesn’t advance in the ways that you’d like.

If you’re willing to get on the highway to measurable gain, here is your roadmap:

1. Familiarize Yourself

Just because you’ve been stretching a particular way since you were a white belt, doesn’t imply you’re doing it correctly. There are many hypotheses on stretching and merely comprehending how your muscles work can be a great service in sorting out what ideas you decide to use for your workout.

2. Set Firm Objectives

If you’ve always desired to be “more flexible,” but have never actually been certain what that signifies, now is the moment to get sober. Set a minimum of three definite flexibility objectives for the forthcoming year. For more points on establishing and adhering to your plans, see the article on goal setting.

3. Create A Strategy

Once you have objectives, you need a strategy. Merely determining that you’re going to stretch after each lesson isn’t sufficient to assist you to crush your frustration. By the time you complete our lessons on stretching, you should be capable of creating a program that tells you precisely how you’re going to drive your flexibility to the next level, including which workouts, how frequently, using which techniques of stretching, when, and at what energy level. The more precise you can be in preparation, the more promising your likelihood of boosting your flexibility. If you’ve never prepared a training workout before, our workout planning instructions have detailed lessons to aid you to get started.

4. If It’s Not Working, Stop

Some stretching workouts just simply don’t work. You might be performing them because it’s part of your routine or because you’ve consistently done them, but now it’s time to clip them out of your exercise program and substitute them with what works for you. Bear in mind, that what works for the person next to you in the gym or what works for your trainer, might not work for you. Pay attention to your body and test. Trial and error is sometimes the only way, but it always works.

5. Maintain A Workout Log Or Journal

When you sense you’re stumped, a workout log or training journal can assist you to pinpoint the origin of your disappointment. In noting down what you do and what you experience after exercise, trends may materialize. Finding a workout style that’s good and that works for you requires some detective work, but it’s definitely worth the grind.

6. Modify Your Training Routine

Routines are comfy, but they usually lead to slumps and dullness. On our site, you’ll find a comprehensive assortment of workouts for individual areas of your body. Don’t delay until you’re exhausted from a workout or exercise habit to switch it. Give your workout plan an overhaul no less than once every three months to stay fresh and stimulating.

7. Be Honest

Are you truly doing what you intended? It’s easy to rip off yourself a little here and there, and then find yourself rubbing your head at the end of the month when you don’t see the improvement you hoped for. Did you actually exhaust ten minutes of stretching today or was it better to admit it was seven? Did you maintain each stretch for twenty seconds or get disinterested and shorten it to ten? By remaining truthful with yourself, you can correctly assess the results of each workout.

8. Safeguard Against Overtraining

When you are enthusiastic about enhancing your flexibility, you gamble forcing yourself too hard. When it comes to flexibility conditioning, accomplishing twice as much today doesn’t imply you can neglect tomorrow. And accomplishing twice as much two days consecutively might suggest your muscles end up tighter rather than looser. Design an appropriate training program and adhere to it.

9. Sidestep Gimmicks

Sometimes when you get bamboozled, you’ll attempt anything to get out of experience something new. There is an abundance of “instantaneous results” type tricks out there. Use this supplement or try this device, they say, and trim days off your workout. If it sounds out of this world, it likely is. The heart of the matter is, that if you desire to be more flexible, stretch every day. There are no alternatives or shortcuts.

10. Adhere To Your Plan

When you are beyond the novice phase but haven’t cracked through to your highest level of flexibility, improvement may appear dead at times, but keep doing what you are doing. You’ll get there!